Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz recently joined a string of critics expressing concern over the Florida State Seminoles’ exclusion from the College Football Playoff (CFP).
The CFP committee has reportedly cited the season-ending injury of star quarterback Jordan Travis as the reason, which Drinkwitz criticized.
“If we’re going to really have hard conversations, let me ask you this – If a team in the playoff has a star player injured, are they going to be removed from the playoff, and then we put Florida State back in?” Drinkwitz said on SiriusXM College Sports Radio on December 8. “That to me was complete nonsensical rationalization.”
“And I know I’m an SEC guy, but that one bothered me a whole lot,” he added. “And to then to not factor in maybe a team having an unfair advantage in some of their games. It just seemed like to me, we were picking and choosing what lens we were going to look through.”
Travis’ injury occurred in the game against the North Alabama Lions on November 18. In the first quarter, he ran up the middle, resulting in his left leg being placed in an air cast and him being carted off the field. Soon after, the sixth-year senior athlete announced the end of his season on social media and shared appreciation for the support he received.
Even so, some critics note that coach Drinkwitz might have a different stance if his team was in Alabama’s position. Had Missouri held one loss, triumphed over the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game, and faced the Playoff snub, Drinkwitz would likely assert the Tigers deserved the spot over Florida State.
Different without Jordan Travis
The Seminoles have a 13-0 record, an ACC title win over Louisville with a backup quarterback and a win over in-state rival Florida. Even so, they had been ranked behind the Michigan Wolverines, the Washington Huskies, the Texas Longhorns and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
CFP selection committee chair Boo Corrigan has provided a statement of the committee’s decision to leave FSU out of this year’s playoff. According to him, Florida State “is a different team without Jordan Travis.”
“One of the questions that we ask from a coaching standpoint is, ‘Who do you want to play? Who do you not want to play?’” Corrigan said. “We are looking at where we are today, not where we were three weeks ago or eight weeks ago. got a significant voice in the room. We went around and around late night and came back again morning to do it again. We came back with Florida State at No. 5.”
The Seminoles have reacted harshly to the snub. Florida State coach Mike Norvell released a scathing statement on the CFP committee’s decision to leave them out.
“I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee’s decision today to have what was earned on the field taken away because a small group of people decided they knew better than the results of the game,” Norvell said.
“We are not only an undefeated P5 conference champion, but we also played two P5 non-conference games away from home and won both of them,” he added. “I don’t understand how we are supposed to think this is an acceptable way to evaluate a team.”
The Seminoles’ exclusion from the playoff sparked a widespread backlash in a sport where undefeated Power 5 conference champions have always made the playoffs. Many parties argue that SEC bias has contributed to excluding the state from the CFP despite its undefeated season.